Cardiff/Hull Alumni win Exeter Open

Congratulations to ‘CARDs for our HULLish EXEs’ (Alex Harris, formerly Hull, and Craig McDonald, formerly Cardiff) for winning the Exeter Open. They won the final on the motion: ‘This House prefers a world without Romantic Love’ from Opening Government, defeating ‘Cardiff RS’ (Ryan F. and Sophie Johnstone) in Opening Opposition, ‘Bristol Sleighding our way back to Asia’ (Timothy Lo and Matthew Xiang) in Closing Government, and ‘Lebsky’ (Seb Curtis and Luke Kosky, Bristol) in Closing Opposition.

R1: This House would randomly place all children in high schools within their town/city, providing transport for them if necessary, rather than give families a choice within their district.

Info text: In the UK parents can pick which secondary school they can send their child to. Places at over-subscribed schools are allocated by postcode. Houses in the catchment area for the best school(s) tend to have a higher value than the rest of the area.

R2: This House would require all major non-contact sports (e.g. cricket, football and netball) leagues and international competitions to have gender balance within teams.

R3: This House would only give amnesties to low-level perpetrators of war crimes when the victims or victims’ families give their consent.

Info text: War crimes are crimes defined by international law. They are carried out by combatants. Important war crimes include the direct targetting of non-combatants and the use of disproportionate force.

R4: This House would replace appointed Lords with randomly selected British citizens.

Info text: The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It can vote on legislation, enacting a delay of up to two years, and propose amendments. Since the abolishment of hereditary peers, appointed members of the Lords are supposed to be experts in their field (e.g. Lord Sugar is an expert on business). Their function is to offer their expertise on policy and act as a form of ‘moral consciousness’/ check and balance on Government policy.